


Lamentalia - Alfred

by Senseability



Series: Lamentalia [3]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Choose Your Own Adventure, Eventual Relationships, Hetalia Characters - Freeform, Lamento Crossover, Lamento world mechanics, M/M, playing/reading Lamento will not be necessary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2020-05-31 15:36:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19428934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senseability/pseuds/Senseability
Summary: As a calamity called the Void creeps too close to home, two twin siblings race to the safety of Achena, the most populated village in Erstwen, hoping to meet up with friends and find a new home. However, they are violently separated along the way.Follow Alfred as he scrambles to reunite with his brother Matthew and meets some helpful (and not so helpful) personalities along the way into something bigger than he can imagine.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please read Lamentalia - Opening first.  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/19379719

Alfred peers down from the branch he’s lying on. He’d been woken up by the sounds of bickering, which is weird because he hadn’t seen enough cats to overhear bickering in a while. Alfred yawns and stretches his shoulders and spine down through his tail.

There are two of them. Bounty hunter looking tomcats skulking around the tree line opposite of him. Alfred scratches the back of his ear then swivels both around to listen in on their not-so-quiet argument.

“—that village we passed, its one of those, you know? They’re so hard up for food they’re fuckin’ eating each other. They’ll pay us anything!” the shorter one says.

“Look I don't care. I came up here to hunt monsters. The backwater villages around here aren’t going to pay for anything like Achena does for monster parts. I’m not going to waste my time.” The taller one replies.

“I’m telling you its easy money! I can smell him, he’s around here somewhere and we haven’t found _any_ monsters in this area yet. Its the _opposite_ of wasting our time!”

Alfred lifts an eyebrow. The hell are they talking about? There hasn’t been any kind of prey animal around here in ages. He should know, his stomach has told him so every day for the last two years at least.

Alfred watches carefully as the shorter one spots one of his fresh claw markings on a tree.

‘Yes. This is my territory. Now go bother someone else and don’t be the kind of jackass I think you’re gonna be.’ He thinks, his eyes on them steadily.

Aaand he touches it. Yeah ok, its go time. Alfred jumps from his branch into the small clearing and walks toward them.

“Hey, Hi.” Alfred shouts to them. The two tomcats turn to him not looking especially surprised. Well, obviously, they’d been checking out his mark so they knew he was around. “Guys. You’re not going to find monsters or food up here. I take care of the monsters. There aren't many hanging around here right now. And of course the food is mine. You know. Territory.” He gestures to his mark helpfully.

The two trespassers look to each other and back.

“He’s younger than I thought.” The big, gray one says, eyeing Alfred.

“That's because your sense of smell is shit. But forget fresh meat, we could probably make some decent money off of him to the right buyer in Achena.” The short one replies, smirking, and now Alfred is confused again.

“Hey? Guys? The hell are you talking about?” Alfred’s getting irritated. “I know you city cats aren’t super into the whole territory thing but there are rules out here, you know.” He hates being ignored on the best of days, but these guys also sound like they’re up to something and he doesn’t like it.

“I’m not convinced it’ll be worth hauling him all the way back.” The gray one says unsheathing his long sword. “But I am getting bored.”

Well, this is something Alfred understands at least. Maybe they’ll be more willing to comply if he roughs them up a bit. He draws his dagger, lowers his stance and attacks first. No point in beating around the bush.

—

Matthew scopes the situation from the cover of some trees just out of view of the clearing. There are two tomcats. Al’s only engaging one of them and he’s running circles around him.

Matthew leans against the tree beside him to watch their progress. Al never needs help in one-on-one battles but the cat hanging out on the sidelines is suspicious so he keeps an eye out.

Sure enough, after a particularly close call, the bigger one fighting Al yells to the smaller one to start Singing. Matthew peels off the tree and watches carefully as the smaller of the two takes out a flute and begins to play. He can see the big one’s whole aspect change and begin to take the advantage over Al.

Yes, he’s a sanga. Matthew had thought as much. There’s little reason for another cat to hang around watching his companion get played around with if he’s not being kept in reserve for something like this.

Speaking of which. Al’s not really in trouble yet, but there’s no reason to let this continue. Time for Gilbert’s Rule Number 1 for fighting against synced pairs. Matthew takes a sturdy, crooked branch in hand and runs around the edge of the clearing toward the sanga. He whistles a familiar note to alert Al of his plan.

—

Alfred isn’t surprised that the short one turned out to be a sanga. For some reason, none of the sangas he’s encountered have ever entered the fray and he figured that’s what was going on here. He IS sort of surprised that these guys manage to sync at all, even if they’re doing it poorly. They must be strangers who combined recently for convenience.

Enhanced by his sanga’s Song, Gray's movements have gotten sharper and he’s finally able to keep up with Alfred’s quick movements.

Alfred thinks that maybe its time to put some muscle into this, when suddenly he hears a familiar whistle. Any stress he might have been feeling melts away immediately. So much so, he starts laughing.

“The hell are you laughing at, kid?” Gray asks calmly, striking again with his big sword. Al catches it with his dagger again, grinning.

“I was just thinking. Your sanga should really learn how to fight.” He replies, cheerfully fending off another strike. Gray looks confused, then uncomfortable as he jerks his head up in the direction of his sanga. Alfred lets him.

They both watch as Mattie bursts through the tree line directly behind the sanga.

He notices, but too late. Before he can even take two steps in retreat, Mattie has laid him flat out cold with a strike to the back of his head.

Gray’s jaw drops and before he can look back again, Alfred slams his fist into his face as hard as he can. He falls to the ground like a bag of rocks. Eh. He’s a tough guy, he can probably handle it.

“Hey Mattie! Thanks!” Alfred looks up at his twin brother with a cheeky grin. Mattie returns it with a smile that’s wryer than his usual one which pings Alfred as bad news. Hmm. He begins to search the gray touga’s belongings for anything useful.

“Whats up, bro? Something happen?” He asks offhandedly, finding some small polished stones and some nuts and dried fruit in a satchel. “Score!”

The small stones are used as currency among the more transaction-reliant Ribika and have never been all that useful out here, but when they find any, they stash them away just in case as Gilbert had recommended. The food is obviously the real winner here. He pops a small red fruit in his mouth as reward for a job well done. It’s tart and sweet and it makes him really want to eat more…

“Hey Al…” Mattie says, bringing his attention back. Alfred looks up.

“Yeah?”

“I think it might be time to consider getting out of here.” He says looking down and scratching his neck. His ears are lowered and he’s got that worried look again.

They’d been “considering” leaving their home and territory for a while now, making what-if plans and backup strategies, so this topic is nothing new, but the timing is fishy. Alfred leaves the touga with the rest of his stuff. He’s not totally cruel. An unarmed cat is as good as dead around here now-a-days. He then stands up and walks over to his brother to focus on what it is that’s got him all bothered.  
  
Which could really only be one thing by this point.

“You found the Void nearby?” Alfred asks seriously. Mattie nods and raises his hand, showing off the bloody bandages on his right hand. Well, shit.

“It’s on the north side. I didn’t have time to check the perimeter before I heard your fight and rushed over here but I think its pointless, anyway.” Mattie sighs. “There’s not enough food, the number of monsters is increasing, it’s been a long time since Gilbert or Tino and Sven have stopped by, frankly I’m really worried about them, and now the Void has shown up—”

“Hey Mattie.” Alfred interrupts him. No point getting riled up about it now. “I get it. I agree and I’m worried too.” He claps him on one shoulder and bumps his nose against the other in a show of affection and an attempt to calm him down. It does the trick.

“Lets check the sanga for loot and get home. We can prepare to leave after dinner, yeah?”

Mattie lets out a gust of air in conflicted relief.

“Yeah. Yeah, ok.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Forewarning, there is some recycled story text from Amelia's route in here. See end notes for details about this.
> 
> UPDATE 7/29/19:  
> Hey all! I've started to post up in-progress chunks of the chapter I'm working on to the tumblr page that I made for this project. :D So If you're interested in seeing some WIP and/or drafty content, probably some doodles and drawings I won't put up here, and random babbling about the fic, please visit https://lamentalia.tumblr.com/
> 
> I will be taking asks directed to characters there too.

“Do you have to eat like that, Al?” Mattie says with a tone of mild disgust.

Alfred looks at him questioningly, mouth full of dried meat and fruits, hand buried deeply in a bag of provisions that they had found on the sanga. This one was bigger than the one on the touga and it had _meat_. Mattie and he had split it to eat while they walked home.

“Dude, how are you _not_ stuffing your face?” Alfred replies.

Mattie stares at him, deadpan. Ok, maybe Alfred’s reply wasn’t as intelligible as he imagined it was.

“Maybe swallow your food before you talk, too, eh?” He says rolling his eyes. “I forgot how unappetizing it is to watch you eat like this.”

Mattie peers dourly into his share of the looted food, a bit green in the face and ears lowered sadly. He looks like he really wants to eat more but he doesn’t dare. Mattie must have gotten used to eating the small rations after so long. Alfred remains, as ever, a bottomless pit.

“Jealous.” Alfred snickers, eating another morsel of jerky. Oh, how he’d missed the taste of meat— “Ow!”

Alfred grabs the end of his tail— where Mattie had PINCHED IT, the jerk— and massages the poor thing.

“Yeesh!” Alfred says, “I don’t know why Ludwig and Tino think you’re the nice one.” He picks at the fur on his tail with his teeth for a moment, hoping that grooming it will take some of the sting out.

Oww. Seriously, though, Mattie always went straight for the sensitive bits.

Occupied as he is, it takes Alfred a couple of steps and an audible, heavy sigh for him to realize Mattie had slowed to a stop behind him. Releasing his tail, Alfred turns back to him. Mattie is staring off into the space between the trees to his right and there's a tenseness in his stance. His tail stiff and brows furrowed, but it isn’t the alert kind of tense.

“Mattie? What’s up?”

“…Do you think they’re ok, Al?” Mattie says finally, not looking away from what Alfred finally realizes is Southeast, where Achena is.

“Yeah. I do.” Alfred says simply. He then turns back around and continues to walk.

There’s a quiet, discontented grunt and then Mattie’s footsteps jogging to catch up.

“Really, Al? I thought you said you were worried, too.” He’s annoyed now but there’s already clear relief in his tone.

Mattie and Alfred had always planned to go to Gilbert and his brother Ludwig if they were ever forced to leave their home. They lived in Achena, the biggest settlement of cats in the country, located right in the center of Erstwen. Achena is supposed to be a much safer place than the outskirts of Erstwen where Alfred and Mattie live. It had never had any outbreaks of Void or Sickness—last they’d heard, anyway—and Gil and Lud were very strong. However, Alfred knew they did some kind of dangerous work and the fact that they hadn’t seen either of them in two years is… Well it's concerning.

It’s not that Alfred isn’t worried; he’s just never been very good at dwelling on things that aren't immediately in front of him. Mattie, though. He’s very good at thinking up possible outcomes and then getting stuck on the real bad ones. Times like this, when Alfred doesn’t have any answers or concrete evidence to argue, its best to just derail him.

“Hey, doesn’t Achena have that festival every winter? You know, Lud told us about it years ago. They all set up tents with food and games and shit.”

“…Al.”

“Maybe it’ll be on when we get there! Y’know, I’ve always wanted to see it!”

Yet another heavy sigh. Success!

“Al, it’s not even winter yet. At the earliest it’s going to be a few weeks.” Mattie pauses for a second then pipes back up as if he’d only just remembered to ask.

“Oh hey, what were those two cats doing up here, anyway?”

“Eh. Monster hunting.” Alfred shrugs. “Weird guys, though. They were talking about finding some kind of game. Like for food.”

“What??”

“Yeah. Fresh meat, he said? I mean, it’s really obvious there aren’t any animals around here anymore, so I have no idea what he was talking about.”

“Yeah, that’s weird, alright…”

★

Oh. Damn.

He hadn’t thought about this part.

Alfred was so caught up in his conversation with Mattie (They had gone on to talk more about what they knew and supposed about Achena,) they’d already reached home, traipsing into the small clearing as they do every day.

Every day up until today.

The easy smile he’d been wearing melts right off and he slows to a stop to look around.

A sunny meadow opens around them, full of autumn wildflowers and the distant, familiar sounds of the ocean. The old, funny-looking tree near the center of the clearing grows out of a big pile of boulders where the entrance to their underground house is hidden. This place, the only home he’d ever known, would soon be abandoned; waiting only for the void to take it.

A cool hand touches his wrist, grasps it gently, pulls him forward.

It’s Mattie. He’s looking back with that tense expression again. Naturally, he’d already thought about this part.

That this would be the last time they would ever be home.

Mattie pulls Alfred along slowly enough for him to gain his bearings.

After a moment, Alfred swallows the lump in his throat, steels himself and forges ahead to overtake his brother.

Better start making the most of it.

☆

_Sunlight filters in through the crevice in the ceiling. The floating dust motes beneath it look like tiny, moving stars. He follows the motes with his eyes for a moment before trying to catch them in his small, uncoordinated hands. He peeks into his cupped hands each time he thinks he_ _’s caught one but never finds one there. It perplexes him and makes him more determined…_

_He hears a soft, musical hum coming from the direction of the stove._

_It_ _’s Mama._

_He turns around hoping to see Mama, but Mattie is sitting at the big wooden table, drawing, and is blocking his view. He jumps a few paces sideways, craning his neck._

_And one more jump._

_There_ _’s Mama!_

_He loves Mama_ _’s humming. He runs, singing along, to Mama and Mama turns and smiles down at him…_

☆

Mattie takes a stack of Guiding Leaves from a basket near the entrance and gives half of them to Alfred. There is a shallow bowl on a shelf beside them that is still full of water from the morning. Mattie drops a leaf into the water. After a moment it begins to glow and the two descend the short staircase into the main living area of their home.

They walk about the room dropping leaves into the bowls of water placed in each corner of the room and put the remainder of their leaves into a large bowl on the wooden table in the center of the room. Gradually the room fills with soft green light. __

Alfred looks around slowly, noticing all the things he takes for granted in daily life. The space is cozy—his head nearly hits the top of the door frames these days—but it fits the two of them just fine. The stove and table remain the same as they ever were, since before he can remember.

 __There’s a barrel for water and several others for storing food stacked in one corner of the room. Mattie has a couple of jars of his sap reduction sitting on a shelf near the stove which he is quite proud of. As he should be; that stuff is really, really tasty.

Alfred’s attention shifts to the opposite side of the room where there are several shelves that they’d installed to put the books left behind by their mother and gifted to them by Gilbert. He moves closer to touch them and wonders whether they could spare the space and the weight of them in their travel packs.

☆

_“’Long, Long ago, Two Canes were the cleverest of all life in the land. They spoke several languages and used their tools and intelligence to make whatever things they wanted._

_They could fly through the sky or burrow underground—_ _’”_

_“WOW! They fly??” Alfred asks, taking a break from “grooming” Mama’s glossy, black tail._

_“_ We _live underground._ _” Mattie said quietly, sounding dubious._

_“Yes, they did fly.” Mama said with a patient smile, lowering the book she was reading to look at each kitten._

_“And Mattie, this house was built by Two Canes many, many years ago. This place is very special and ancient.”_

_Mattie_ _’s ears straighten in shock. He peers around the room as though looking for some hint of Two Canes left behind._

_“Issat why the rock walls look funny, Mama?” Alfred asks._

_Mama_ _’s brown-skinned hand pats his head and she gives him a wide smile as if giving him a reward for doing something very good._

_“That’s right, Al,” Mama then pats the smooth, cool wall beside her. “Only the Two Canes could make something like this.”_

_She returns to the book._

_“Now then… ‘they could even spend many days at sea. They excelled at making art and music—’”_

_“Mama n’ me make good music!!” Alfred says excitedly. Mattie looks disappointed so he adds, “And Mattie is good at making drawin’s!” He perks up._

_Mama smiles and continues._

_“’The ancestors of the Ribika were cats that obeyed Two Canes who were second only to the gods and could have been called gods on earth…’”_

_“Where did the Two Canes go?” Alfred asks. “Why aren’t they here anymore?” The concept of gods was still a bit fuzzy to Alfred, though he knew they were supposed to be amazing beings._

_“Well…” Mama hesitates. “We don’t know what happened. We only know that they disappeared long ago.”_

_How mysterious! Alfred imagines them flying so far into the sky that maybe they got lost and couldn_ _’t find their way back._

_“Mama, why are we called Ribika?” Mattie asks with his head to the side, like he does when he’s thinking a lot._

_“We were named after the goddess Ribika who gave birth to the first of our kind.” Mama replies, smiling at Mattie as she did to Alfred earlier. “Before her, our ancestors walked on four legs and were much smaller and less intelligent than we are today.”_

_Alfred tries to imagine such a creature, but it looks very silly. Mattie still has his thinky face on._

_Mama laughs softly and her long, straight black hair shifts as she picks the twins up._ _“Alright, that’s enough for tonight. Time for bed you two.”_

☆

Alfred lifts the book to his chest.

He and Mattie have precious few memories of their mother. Most of the memories they do have are foggy and dreamlike; so delicate that he fears they could disappear.

He decides to take the book with him and grabs the one about the stars that Gilbert gave him, too.

Their mother passed away years ago when they were still very small kittens. They don't remember anything of her death except that she was ill for a time and then gone one day. They do not recall how long they were alone together after that, somehow surviving on what they could find in the house and in the meadow. If Gilbert hadn’t stumbled upon them one day, they certainly would not have survived.

Alfred grabs a pack from his and Mattie’s room and puts the two books in it. Mattie is in here too. If he has any concerns about the practicality of bringing books along, he keeps them to himself. Alfred notices he’s already got the jar of sap reduction sticking out of his own bag. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

Alfred smiles at him knowingly and continues packing. __

★

“Hey, Mattie!” Alfred calls from their bedroom. “Where’d the map go?”

Alfred wanders out of the bedroom and grabs another hand full of dried fruit from a storage barrel in the main area. As small as their food stores are for a winter, it’s too much to carry all at once. They may as well eat as much as they want. Plus, they’ll need the extra energy for the trip and their goal is to end up in a place where they can find food, anyway.

“Ugh. I can’t believe you can still eat after all that…” Mattie replies over his shoulder. He’s sat at the wooden table, pouring over—oh, hey, the map.

“Is that the void?” Alfred leans onto the table next to Mattie and drags the map into his reach so they both can see it.

Their home is labeled, sitting on the far northwest corner of the county Erstwen. Alfred points to a wide section of forest that Mattie had outlined that stretches from the north east to the south of their location.

“Yeah.” Mattie looks at the area sullenly. “Gilbert told us generally where the void had spread to when he was last out here. Obviously, a direct route is out of the question.”

Achena is also labeled, sitting in the very center of the map. Indeed, the swath of void cuts off a direct route.

Between the ocean and the void, they’re nearly locked in except for the lone open area to the south.

“Looks like we’re going south then!” Al chirps, folding the map up.

“Wait— Al!” Mattie stands suddenly from his seat, looking uneasy. “Hey, shouldn’t we plan a little better than that?”

“Mattie, we’ve looked over this thing a million times already and talked it over twice that.” Alfred returns with a reassuring smile, packing the map away safely. “There’s nothing left to do but see how far the void has grown and skirt around it. It’s not like we have much choice in which way we’re going, right?”

A sigh of submission and relief. (Mattie seems to have a sigh for everything!)

“I guess not...”

“Great! You ready to go?” Alfred says, putting his coat on.

Mattie takes another sweeping look across their house. Alfred follows his gaze. They’re leaving so much behind… They knew this day would come but the forewarning gives them no solace in practice. He finds himself sighing, too.

“Yeah. It’s not like it’s going to get any easier, eh?” Mattie says donning his own coat and lifting his pack onto his shoulders. “The sooner we get out of here, the safer.”

Alfred nods and grabs his pack. His sadness is soon overlapped with excitement, again.

He’s always wanted to go to Achena.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, hi there! This took a lot longer than I was hoping it would. I had to spend a lot of time job searching in the last few weeks that took me away from nice things. I've had some mild success, though!
> 
> So one of the hardest things about this chapter was the decision to recycle text... It's a very common thing to do in Visual Novel games but I dunno. I didn't want to be "Lazy." 
> 
> The deciding factor turned out to be that I really want Amelia and Alfred to read as THE SAME PERSON who simply had two different experiences growing up. The farther back in their history, the more similar their experiences are going to look. Going forward, they're going to branch away from each other because the way the world reacts to them will be different. 
> 
> Since this chapter has a lot of memories in it there is also a lot of recycled text. There will likely be more in the story when the past is brought up but I will do my best to discern where it does not need to be used.
> 
> I'm gonna use this color code to highlight recycled text for those who are reading both sides. Much like a Visual Novel would highlight sections of story that have already been read. If a paragraph is not highlighted it means something other than "he/she" is different.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Visit lamentaila.tumblr.com for drafts, wips, doodles and illustrations! Come say hi! :D

  
★

“—of the Tenth Grand Bard of Erstwen, His Most Revered Excellency, were predicted to be exceedingly powerful and so the two were betrothed, to be wed upon the 16th year of this, the Acran era—”

“Ugh. I should’ve brought more books.” Alfred says interrupting Mattie’s history lesson. “This makes for awful travel entertainment. Are you sure—”

“I’m not reading your astronomy book, Al.” Mattie replies instantly, closing the book and handing it back to Alfred.

Alfred takes the book back and looks at it with a mild frown. A day and a half of walking should make anything interesting, but…

“I remember this book being way more compelling…” Al stows it back in the smaller one of his packs, careful to maintain the pace he’d been keeping as he shuffles his cumbersome effects.

“Well, you haven’t read it since we were kittens. You probably only like what you remember of it.” Mattie says as they continue to climb a grassy foothill. Huh… Alfred wonders how his bitty mind could have spun these dry facts into action-packed fairy tales.

“Hey, you said ‘straight south along the mountain range until we reach a stream.’” Mattie adds, after drinking from his waterskin. “It can’t be that much farther can it?”

“Shouldn’t be!” Alfred replies, reaching the far edge of the foothill’s crest. He peers down the other side. “Oh hey, the village!”

“Good. Cause I could use a refi— wait, _what?”_

“Yeah, the stream passes through it, see?” Alfred points to the small center of the village as Mattie joins him.

“…Al. You didn’t say anything about a village.” Mattie says in a careful tone. “Why are we at this village?”

Al turns to him, eyebrow raised. What’s got Mattie so upset, suddenly?

“’Cause we’re gonna follow that stream to a river that will take us the next third of the way? Why?”

“And how are we supposed to get around all of this??” Mattie says incredulously, gesturing to the village, which, unsurprisingly, is surrounded by sprawling territories. Except for the small village center, each house is separated by acres of land. They spread farther to the east than Alfred can see and all the way up the mountain side. These cats sure do like their space. Not that Alfred can judge. He and Mattie have never had any neighbors.

“Uh. We’re not? We’re going to walk through it.” Alfred says and starts making his way down the foothill’s other side.

“ _What?!”_

Alfred can hear Mattie's footsteps quickening to catch up. So, Alfred starts running. Mattie is not going to beat him to the bottom.

“Al, wait! Stop!” Nope. Not gonna fall for that one. “STOP!”

Alfred is nearing the bottom when Mattie manages to tackle him from behind. They tumble the rest of the way down the grassy slope and land in a pile. Alfred bursts out laughing.

“Ow! Jeez, Mattie!” He looks up at his brother, who had landed on top of him, and his laughter dies. Aw shit, that’s his serious business face. Pupils slit and ears back. It’s a jarring look on him, even if his eyes do look more worried than angry. “Woah, dude. What’s wrong?”

“We can’t just go _through_ it!”

“What? Why not?”

“Because! Gilbert told us these outlying villages are unfriendly! They don’t like strangers going anywhere near their territories!”

“Dude, is that what you’re worried about?” Alfred smiles up at Mattie and pushes him back easily so he can sit up and reach for one of the packs still slung around his shoulder; the big one. “Why do you think I brought this whole other giant pack filled with our winter stores, huh?”

Mattie sits back on his heels and raises an eyebrow at him with an uncertain look. He seems to be waiting for Alfred to continue. Well, Alfred thought it was obvious!

“I’m gonna give it to them, Mattie, duh!” Alfred holds the bag up and Mattie looks down at it in surprise. “It’d be a waste to leave it back home, right? We can use it as a peace offering and town center is the closest thing to neutral ground this place is gonna have, I figure. If we were hurting for food with just the two of us, a place with this many cats has got to have it worse than we did. They’ve got to be trading by now or they wouldn’t survive, would they?”

Truthfully, he hadn’t remembered that the cats down here were supposed to be unfriendly. He’d just wanted to help them out. But if food isn’t the best way to win someone over, he just does not know what is. Mattie looks surprised.

“Oh. It’s… not a _bad_ idea. Probably. Maybe.” Mattie says slowly after a moment of thought. He climbs off of Alfred and stands up. “I don’t know… it’s still really risky. Maybe we should try…”

Mattie trails off with a confused look. His ears stand at attention and he looks around, searching the sparse trees ahead of them and the hillside behind them. Uh oh. Alfred jumps to his feet, immediately on alert, and looks around for anything to be concerned about. He doesn’t sense anything, but that doesn’t mean nothing’s there.

“Mattie?” He says under his breath. Mattie looks back at Alfred, still looking confused.

“… Sorry.” He says at normal volume. “It’s nothing. I think.” Alfred arches an eyebrow back at him.

“Ookaay, that’s a little ominous, dude. _What’s_ nothing?” Alfred puts too much stock in his brother’s freaky good senses to let it go that easily. Mattie hesitates before answering but rolls his eyes lightly.

“It’s just a weird feeling, Al. It’s not _always_ going to be something waiting to ambush us.”

“Okay.” Alfred says. “It usually is, though.”

Mattie shrugs reluctantly. “Well, not this time. There’s nothing here. I just… don’t like this place.”

“Fair enough, I guess.” Alfred says, turning toward a pathway that appears to lead through the sparse trees toward the village. Alfred reaches his hand out toward it as if to say, ‘after you’. “Then let’s get out of it?”

“Oh, hey, wait! I was going to say… Maybe we should try going around it first? It seems unsafe to just walk in without invitation… doesn’t it?”

Alfred looks back at Mattie in surprise.

“Go around it??”

“Yeah?”

“The whole village? Or the freakin’ mountain range?”

“Well…”

“Mattie, that will take forever. You were up there on the hill with me, right? I didn’t see an end to these territories, did you?” Alfred gestures widely toward the south for emphasis. “No. In fact you were the one who balked at the idea of walking around it first?!”

“…No…well yeah, but…” Mattie’s ears fall and his brow furrows as he looks away.

Alfred blinks at his brother and mentally steps back for a moment to think. He’d survived living alone in the woods with Mattie long enough to know not to take his hunches for granted. Well. Not when it matters, anyway. And this seems like a time where it matters.

“Okay, how about this.” Alfred says, turning to fully face Mattie. “We get in close and observe the situation from a safe vantage point. If you get any bad vibes, we’ll recoup and make another plan. It’ll be faster to rule this route out first. Deal?”

Mattie takes a beat before he answers. There’s a small smile on his face, though, and he finally looks back up at Alfred.

“Yeah… Deal.” He says, then pushes his nose into Al’s shoulder. “Thanks, Al.”

Alfred laughs at the absurdity of Mattie thanking him for, essentially, his own idea to be careful, but he claps him on the back a couple times and returns the gesture.

“You know I’ve got your back, dude.” He says, then turns, with his arm around Mattie’s shoulders, back toward the pathway again. “Besides, you’re the one who remembered these guys could be dangerous.”

“Ah… so you _did_ forget.”

★

High up in the air above them, an amused chuckle emerges from a breeze, but there is nothing there to see.

★

It’s late afternoon before Mattie gives the ok. Alfred had put in a decent effort but gave up the surveillance in favor of his astronomy book a while ago. The cats here are not much fun to watch. After he’d seen the same three cats walk across the village square two or three times each, he tapped out and left the rest to Mattie. They both know his attention span is not long enough. Besides, Alfred’s more of a “rolling with the punches” kind of guy.

They’re posted up in a large, leafy tree growing behind one of the buildings on the outside of the village center; one that has good cover and vantage. It was easier than they thought it would be to get here. The grassland they’d traveled over provides negligible resources, so the cats have naturally ignored it. There is also only a smattering of trees on the north side of the village center and the pathway that leads through these trees appears to be neutral territory. It’s little wonder, really. The only things that had been living up north of here were Alfred and Mattie and monsters don’t often wander outside the cover of forest. There’s no real need for security on this side.

Halfway through a paragraph on a theory about how the Two-Canes used to study the stars, Alfred hears a short exhale. He looks up hopefully to see Mattie’s resigned profile. He cocks his head in a silent question and Mattie gives him a nod. _Yes!_ Alfred takes a moment to view their surroundings. No one’s looking this way.

Grinning, Alfred grabs his packs and carefully, silently, climbs down the tree to land behind the building. He waits for his brother to reach the ground, too, before speaking in a low voice.

“Glad we can do this before the sun starts setting, it would be pretty awkward to crash in on them at night.”

“Yeah… I thought about that.” Mattie replies. “How do we want to do this?”

“Well, we’re pretty sure the Chief’s house is the big one there, yeah?” Alfred says, pointing to the stream-side house nearest the mountain. “I figure we go in that direction until we can catch someone’s attention.”

Mattie sends him a disgusted grimace, then responds a moment later, morosely. “Ugh. I hate that I don’t have any better ideas than that.”

“Haha! My time to shine, Mattie.” He says with a winning smile. “Let’s go.”

★

They backtrack slightly into the woods before turning back onto the path so as not to let on that they’d been spying for the greater part of a day and wander casually, (and nervously) into the village square.

They look around, pretending to catch their bearings. The stream looks pleasant as it babbles through a canal built into the center of the square. Three bridges cross it. Alfred approaches the middle most bridge looking for anyone who might be about.

Luckily a craggy looking cat exits a nearby building. He looks shocked at first and then aggressive, with ears way back and defensive posture upon seeing Alfred wave him down. Alfred stops waving but keeps his hand up in a placating manner.

“Hey! Hi.” He says. He keeps smiling sheepishly despite the way his voice cracks just a bit on his opening line. This is the first time he’s ever met a cat outside of his own territory (not counting that time with Gilbert when he and Mattie were kittens,) and he’s surprised at how unsettling it turns out to be. He clears his throat and pushes on before it can get to him. “We’re heading to Achena and we’d like to pass through here. Would you mind taking us to see your chief? We’d like to give our respects and trade our goods for their blessing.”

Alfred indicates the overstuffed pack and the cat now looks defensive and confused. He can see a hint of curiosity spark in him, though. Several doors and windows around them crack open and Alfred can see glinting eyes shining behind them. This is kind of… weird. Right? Maybe his theory was wrong and they’re not openly trading with outsiders. Somehow.

Mattie’s hand grips Alfred’s coat and its obvious he’s getting jumpy. Time to up the ante. Slowly, so as not to alarm anyone, he moves his free hand to his bag and unbuckles one side to reveal the dried fruits, roots, bundled grasses and nuts within. The cat’s eyes go comically wide and shift between Alfred and the bag a few times before he responds.

“Where did you two _come_ from…?” He asks in a hostile, yet deeply curious manner. Alfred continues to smile in as friendly a manner as possible. Which is pretty dang friendly!

“Up north, near the coastline.” Alfred says and the cat only looks more distrusting.

“And how did you _get_ there?”

“Uh. We were born there? That’s where we live. Er. Well. Did live, up until very recently.”

Looking perturbed, the craggy cat calls out what seems to be a name and a young tom goes to his side immediately. He looks tired and thin and only slightly younger than Alfred and Mattie. The craggy cat murmurs to the young one who then runs off to enter the chief’s house.

“Follow me.” The craggy cat says curtly, turning to walk in the same direction. Alfred looks to Mattie who gives him a thoroughly nervous look, but so far so good, it seems. The two follow him inside the house.

The young tom is sitting by a side wall when they enter. Facing them is an elderly cat sitting on the floor at a low table in the center of the room with another elder and a middle-aged cat. The three of them glare at the twins suspiciously. Their escort dismisses himself. Alfred plasters his smile back on and is about to speak when he feels a light squeeze on his tail. Not enough to hurt (this time) but enough to distract his attention. Alfred glances sideways at Mattie and notes his stony look and steady, alert ears. It’s a look that might convey polite seriousness to a stranger but says ‘Be Alert and _Be Quiet_ ’ to Alfred. Not that he has any experience with this look or anything.

“I hear that you claim to be from up north.” The old cat says, crossing his arms. His ears are forward but he radiates vehement dislike. “I also hear that you wish to trade for safe passage through our village.”

He leaves it at that. After a quick glance at Mattie, who only blinks placidly, Alfred replies.

“Yes.” He holds the bag of food out to show them its contents. “Er. May I?” He indicates the table before the three cats sitting on the floor. The chief only nods sharply, not taking his eyes off the two of them. Alfred gently places the bag on the table. The middle-aged cat on the left opens the bag further and the three of them stare.

“Where did you find this?” The chief asks.

“It’s our winter store.” Mattie says before Alfred can answer. “We’ve been gathering it since Spring. Sadly, there is not much, considering. The land in our territory is becoming barren and has finally been invaded by the Void. It cuts off a direct route to Achena and so we come to ask if we may pass through your village.”

Wow. Mattie’s pretty good at this! Two of the faces before them are looking slightly less distrusting at least, even if they’re not looking much less hostile.

“Since we’re headed there anyway, it would be a waste to leave it behind, so we brought it as a gift to you.” Alfred adds.

“And how am I to believe that you were born and raised in that cursed, monster-infested land?” The chief says harshly. “The witch Wuti does not permit anyone to trespass, to say nothing of letting anyone live and raise a family there.”

Alfred is taken aback. That was a name he very rarely heard. There wasn’t much need to say it around the house, after all. If he’s not mistaken, it also sounds like this chief fears “Wuti” and does not seem to know about her death, which is upsetting but possibly useful. Alfred glances at Mattie again and they look at each another with the same irked expression. Alfred grabs Mattie’s hand and looks the chief directly in the eyes.

“Yes. Hehewuti is our mother.” Mattie says with the convincing tone of a loving son. All three eyes are back on them and frozen solid.

“She sent us ahead and instructed us to give you this gift.” Alfred says.

“We mean no disrespect, but we ask that you please refer to her by her real name and not in such an offensive manner.”

“Particularly when speaking to us.” Alfred finishes with the barest hint of an edge in his words. The warning in their voices is no act.

The silence that follows seems to last an eternity.

★

There really wasn’t much discussion after that. The elder on the right gruffly thanked them for their offer and asked them to wait in another house while they held conference.

And so, they sat; mostly drained of energy after such a nerve-rending encounter, but they manage to remain anxious. Night is falling now and for a moment, Alfred thinks to do some light grooming as it has been hours since they’d last truly settled. But he didn’t feel much like settling. He’d rather get out of this situation than sit in it like this indefinitely. The elders hadn’t guaranteed them anything and Alfred wasn’t exactly holding his breath.

“Should we just… y’know… run for it?” Alfred murmurs to Mattie, who hasn’t spoken a word since their show of defiance with the village elders. “I’m getting really weirded out. You don’t think it’s gonna be like this in Achena, do you?”

Mattie eyes are closed in an expression of intense focus. It brings Alfred some slight comfort to see the familiar expression on his brother’s face. Mattie always did muddle over the smallest details, for better or worse. Alfred savors this small comfort while he waits for Mattie’s answer.

“I doubt it.” Mattie responds after several moments, not bothering to open his eyes. He then adds, pointedly, “Besides, we _were warned_ that this village would be unfriendly.”

Yeaaah. Alfred tilts his face away and scratches behind one of his ears to mask the slightest betrayal of guilt on his face.

“…Point taken.” Alfred also notes that Mattie hadn’t said ‘no’ to running.

After a few more minutes of silence, Mattie flinches. Alfred, who has started stretching for something to expend his nervous energy on, jumps to his feet on reflex.

“Something’s wrong…” He says, staring at the door and rising to his feet as well.

Alfred slides quietly to the door and puts an ear to it. He can hear a faint roaring and shouting that is growing gradually in volume. He looks back at Mattie. They shrug at each other as the noise crescendos. As it gets closer, Alfred starts to hear distinct sounds: footsteps, crunching leaves, clinking metal. And voices. He can hear certain words repeated among the rabble; words like “sacrifice” and “meat.”

“That’s a lot of cats…” Mattie says nervously. “Do you think this is normal for—”

Mattie’s words are cut off by a shrill scream cutting over the rest. It is pained and distressed, and something about it overrides Alfred’s priorities in that moment. He reaches for the door latch. Mattie’s hand grips his wrist as it lands there. Alfred turns his face slightly toward the obstruction and Mattie’s expression transforms into one of shock and concern.

“Al? What— are you…”

“I’m going.”

“…” Mattie can’t seem to find words and he hasn’t stopped staring. His breathing has quickened, and beads of sweat have appeared on his forehead. Belatedly, Alfred realizes that his own chest is heaving, and his heart is pumping uncomfortably fast. He can feel the fur on his tail standing on end. Mattie swallows audibly. “Uh… H-harmonica? My signal…?”

… Good idea. Mattie’s got good ideas. Alfred nods, slips his free hand around the harmonica in the belt pouch at his side, and opens the door.

You wouldn’t think it was nighttime with all the firelight in the square. Alfred and Mattie step out of the house to find a crowd of cats, several with torches in hand, all gathering before the chief’s house. As soon as the brothers have opened the door, the noise level decreases. All eyes fall upon the two young strangers.

For a moment there is relative quiet. A small part of Alfred’s brain is amazed by the novelty of seeing and being near so many cats all at once, but his sight sets upon a struggling cat, pinned by several of the others into a kneeling position before the chief’s house, tears streaming down his face. Alfred’s eyes find dripping blood and his focus seems to narrow down to a pinpoint again. Well after he made the decision to interfere, Alfred has finally put two and two together.

This is how they’ve been surviving. How many cats have they…? For how long? Alfred thinks he’s going to be sick.

“Let him go.” He finds himself saying, voice cracking again. Mattie tugs on his coat, probably to remind him to wait for a signal.

Just as the voice of the crowd had begins to rise again, the village chief’s door creaks open, slowly, and the noise dies again.

There is no light coming from the open door.

Mattie tugs Al’s coat more insistently and says, in a wavering voice, “Al… something is really, _really_ wrong…”

_Hungry…devour…_

Alfred hears a strange, faint voice that sounds as if it were spoken somewhere in the back of his mind. None of the mob seems to have heard it, but there’s an instant change in the atmosphere.

“It’s empty…” a voice from the crowd says.

“The chief is gone…?” another says. “They’re gone!?”

The tension in the air rises again along with the roar of the crowd; it greatly surpasses its previous levels. Mattie tugs hard at Al’s collar and hisses, “ _Run._ ” This time, Alfred is amenable. Things have gotten too confusing and seem to be spiraling out of control. What had he even really come out here to do??

They run. He knows, without having to look back, that they will be chased. He focuses on running as fast as he can instead. Mattie’s in the lead, aiming to follow the stream beyond the square. Once they’ve passed the rows of houses before them, they’ll be in the forest and will hopefully be able to lose the cats behind them. It will be enemy territory and it will be a first for Alfred and Mattie to experience a chase this way, but they have been trained for it. They can do this. Only a little bit farther and they’ll pass–

Alfred’s body jerks to a hard stop and he hangs by the armpits of his coat for a half of a second before he realizes that something caught his collar the moment they passed the final house beside the stream.

 _Fuck!_ Was someone hiding behind it? _Fuck, fuck, fuck!_

He struggles, either to turn or to escape and sees Mattie stopping to look around. He’s realized Alfred is no longer behind him.

“No! Don’t stop! _Go!!_ ” Alfred urges his brother on with a panicked shout, but Mattie’s already turned around. He freezes and his face goes pale. He looks like he’s seen something indescribably frightening… it’s enough to send a chill down his own spine.

Alfred kicks his legs again, desperate to get free. Finally, his feet find purchase on land; he twists to face his captor, ready to fight.

…And everything goes black.

★

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and Critique! Thank you for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

★

Distant, indistinct music reaches Alfred’s senses before anything else. He can feel a cold surface beneath him. It is not soil or grass or stone…

The memory of what had just transpired floods back to him and his eyes snap open, wide with fright.

“Mattie!!” he shouts, lifting his head and turning about to search for his brother. He sees nothing but darkness.

He rolls onto his stomach and his panic intensifies when he sees nothing beneath him but space. It’s like looking into the night sky but with only a few, dim, cloud-like illuminations instead of stars. He can feel a surface, but he cannot see it.

Shakily climbing onto his hands and knees, he turns his head side to side, searching for Mattie. Or for anything, really.

Where is he? What’s happened? And where the hell is Mattie??

He spots the only other object occupying this space with him. It is a large, shapeless… _thing_ floating only a short distance from him. However, he can’t make out much in the dimness. It appears to be inanimate, whatever it is.

_…Thump Thump…._

Alfred jumps at the sound of a heartbeat, loud, as if it were inside his own ears. It is not his. He can feel his own heart beating much harder and faster than that.

_…Thump Thump…_

Alfred sits back on his heels looking around again for the heartbeat’s origin. Suddenly he is blinded by intense, green light. He shields his eyes with his arm and tries to blink through it to see what has happened. After a moment he can see that a green flame has erupted near the shapeless object, which turns out to be a large stone.

He’s trying to identify a vague, dark shape within the flame when he feels something cold and smooth slithering up his arm. Before he can react to it, however, it has coiled across the back of his neck and is staring him straight in the eyes. Immediately he notices that its right eye is darker than its left… It’s a snake. A very vivid, green one.

Alfred is not afraid of snakes, in fact he rather likes them, but this is _not_ normal snake behavior. This whole situation is off the walls, really, he’s starting to think he’s dreaming despite his lucidity. Was everything that had happened earlier just a dream, too? How much of it? Has he slipped into another one? Maybe, if he wakes up… he’ll be safe at home with Mattie…

_“Do you feel it?”_

His thoughts are interrupted by a disembodied voice. It is smooth and firm and it echoes out from nowhere in particular. The snake stares at him with its strange eyes like it’s the one asking.

 _“Do you feel it? Overflowing from my scales, my tongue, my eyes, my heartbeat.”_ The voice continues. Though articulate, its vowels stretch languidly, and it only lightly touches its “r’s”. The sound is peculiarly pleasant. _“My existence. Do you feel it?”_

Alfred is unsure whether to address the snake or not. It seems absurd, but then again, what about this scenario isn’t? He responds slowly. “I, um… what am I supposed to feel?”

A small chuckle.

 _“Me, love. Do pay attention.”_ The voice replies with the slightest hint of amusement. _“Answer me. What am I to you? What do you feel?”_

The snake breaks eye contact and lowers itself from his neck, down his chest to around his middle. Immediately a sharp pain spikes in his stomach and he doubles over with a sharp gasp. At first, he thinks that the snake has bitten him, but quickly recognizes this familiar ache. An ache like what he felt when their food started to run out last winter.

He is hungry. Hungrier than he’s ever been. It’s as though a deep, bottomless hole is opening up somewhere within him. Would only food really sate his hunger? No, he needs more than that; he needs… water, knowledge, strength, touch… _anything_ that might fill this hollow ache.

_“Answer me.”_

He barely registers the voice echoing over the desperate longing that has spread up through his chest. The feeling is unendurable… he will not survive it if he can’t…

Alfred can feel the snake slithering back up his chest. Groaning, he looks down at it, prepared to rip it away from himself, when he notices that an awful, black hole has opened there down to his abdomen. No wound, no viscera, just cold, black nothing.

As he stares, frozen in shock, the snake slithers into the gaping hole as if to search inside. The pain and emptiness of his hunger intensifies. Instinctively he grabs at the snake’s tail to pull it out, but it slips through his grip easily. What can he do…? There is nothing here… nothing to satisfy his overwhelming craving. He falls forward onto his elbows

The snake retrieves its head from his chest and slithers back up his neck to look him in the eyes once more. Its eerie right eye draws him into it, like an endless vacuum.

Choose:

[The impulse to consume is overpowering.]

[The snake’s eye is a chilling void.]

The thought only touches the surface of his mind before the snake releases his gaze. It crawls back into the hole in his chest and the deep, tortuous hollow remains, unrelenting. And now he is suffocating, his breaths are deep and yet they do not fill his lungs… His chest squeezes painfully… If he can’t— …he’ll die….!

_“Does it hurt, love? Is it unbearable? Or perhaps irresistible? You cannot decide, can you?”_

Alfred lets out a strangled cry. His forehead connects with the invisible surface beneath him as he bends forward again, unable to support himself. He cards his fingers through his hair and grips tight. He is so cold… and so, so empty…

★

_-gasp-_

_Cold_ _… so cold…_

Alfred shivers violently. His eyes fly open and he inhales a long, sharp breath.

Light filters through the trees that surround him. He is lying on a muddy forest floor. He is soaking wet and freezing cold.

Was all that a dream, after all? Has he woken up? Where is he? His mind swirls with recent, vivid memories and emotions that he is too delirious to organize. He is unable to process his surroundings. His heavy eyelids close again.

After several moments of drifting and incoherent consciousness, one thought rises clearly to the surface of his mind.

“…M-Mattie…”

Regardless of where Alfred is, Mattie must be somewhere nearby. And if Alfred turned up in this state, what condition would he be in?

Groaning and hissing through chattering teeth, he works against every stiff muscle in his body to turn over onto his stomach, then painstakingly rises to his hands and knees. His bleary eyes scan the horizon, searching for clues.

“Mattie…” his voice is barely above a whisper. He sees only trees and brush before him. One of his hands slips out from under him and he face plants into muddy soil.

It takes an agonizingly long time for him to make it to his feet and despite the effort it takes, his body remains chilled to his bones… The air feels icy cold. How long was he out? Did the weather change? He just now realizes his coat is missing… and his pack… _Fuck_. The only thing more important than that right now is Mattie, though. Shit… and his—

He breathes a shaky sigh of relief finding his harmonica still in the pouch at his side. He sees a river beside him. Wider than the stream he remembered disappearing next to. Did he fall in and get washed away after he blacked out?

Shit.

_Shit._

Stumbling over brush and his own feet, Alfred sniffs the air for any sign of Mattie. There is none… but he does smell something. Something like… cooking food?

Considering his last run in with strange cats was such a disaster he hesitated for a split second before deciding to follow it to its origin. He wouldn’t know what was there until he saw it and he’s hardly in a position to be picky. He’ll… he’ll figure it out when he gets there… He needs help to find Mattie.

He follows the tangy aroma along the riverside to the edge of a waterfall… the cliff edge on his side is slightly sloped but the river and the edge beyond it seems to drop into a semicircular pit. It looks like the land here collapsed long ago…

Looking over the edge, he can see a Two-Canes ruin at the foot of the cliff. It would be hidden from nearly any other perspective. The smell of food is stronger.

Alfred tries to scale down the ancient landslide as carefully as he can, but his dexterity simply isn’t up to the task. He loses his footing and tumbles to the bottom before he gets very far. On the bright side, his cold body is apparently fairly numb to pain that isn’t moving his own aching muscles. After catching his bearings and fighting back a wave of dizziness he works his way back onto his feet.

The ruins are tall, almost as tall as the cliff is, with several square openings along its grey face. It is half crumbled on one side, but most of it is surprisingly intact. Alfred closes in on what looks to be a main entrance and finds a large door. He knocks with a hand that is weaker than he’d like it to be.

He knocks again.

It takes a moment, but he can hear someone approaching on the other side of the door.

Thank Ribika, it opens.

“Welcome back, Lovi! Did you need help bringing in— _Oh_...”

Alfred feels a warm relief spread through him at the sight of the cat, for reasons he cannot quite understand. Maybe it’s the soft, friendly face he’d had before the smile melted off at the sight of Alfred. Clearly, he was expecting someone else. It could also be the smell of food and the feeling of being at the end of one leg of a long journey, but he finds his consciousness beginning to wane again.

“Can you… help me? Please?” Alfred forces his voice to work while he hugs his shivering body.

“Oh… oh no. I um… No. I don’t think I can…” The cat replies. His expression is a mixture of genuine regret and fearful anxiety. Well… Alfred supposes he can’t blame him, considering.

“…N-no? See, I’m…” His eyes droop closed again as he fights off the black spots crowding his vision “S-sorry…. I’m l-looking for my bro…. brother….”

And once again everything is black.

★

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol... Poor Alfred has to fend for himself. Sorry, darling. ;_;


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Thank you[flamaflavio](https://flamaflavio.tumblr.com/) for the Italian translations!!!**💖
> 
> !! IMPORTANT CHANGES !!
> 
> Ransen is now renamed **Achena**  
>  Sisa is now renamed **Erstwen**  
>  I am renaming the borrowed words from Lamento so that they better match the feeling of the fic. I imagine it will be confusing for those who've been reading up to now. Sorry! To me they stick out like a sore thumb. D:
> 
> Thank you for your patience!

★

When Alfred wakes this time, it’s to that heavenly smell of cooking food, only tenfold. He feels achy all over, and he’s lying on something fairly hard and lumpy. Alfred opens his eyes and lifts his head minutely. Oh… that’s his own drool pooling around his face. Gross. But he’s still groggy and moving hurts, so he’s on to the next matter.

It’s dark. Or rather… dim light seems to be filtering in through something covering his face. A blanket? The rest of him seems to be wrapped up in several more of them. Ambient noises, like stove fire and boiling water, fill what sounds to be an enclosed room. Over this he can hear the murmur of several muffled voices. 

“Please, I’m begging! Please don’t crowd, here!” One voice rises above the others. It is clearer than the others, sounding as though it is in the same room as him. “If Lovi finds out when he gets back, I will be in so much trouble! And if everyone is standing here, he’s definitely going to notice!!”

“You can’t expect to hide a tom in here without a reaction, Feli.” One voice responds. “This is like, The Most Interesting thing to happen around here in ages, just let us have a look! Emma said he’s cute and I need to confirm.”

“No, Feliks, he could wake any minute!” The first pleading voice says. “If he does—”

The voices are barely registering any meaning in Alfred’s muddled mind, but he’s sure he doesn’t recognize any of them. Ow… he appears to have strained something in his back at some point and the lumpy mass beneath him is digging right into it. Was he like this before? He was probably too cold to notice. Where is he, anyway?

“ _Oh!_ I think he moved!” another, higher pitched voice whispers excitedly.

“Ahhhh! I need to go!” The first voice squeaks and Alfred can hear some brief scrambling before the door closes loudly. Quick footsteps approach and the blanket covering his head lifts gently away.

“Are you awake?” says the nervous voice. Once Alfred’s eyes adjust to the firelight, a concerned face comes into view. It looks kind of familiar.

“Oh, hey—” Wow, that was rough. Alfred’s tries to clear his throat but ends up in a short coughing fit and this is really not the best position or location to be in while coughing. “—Ow.” 

“Sorry!” The cat says, wincing sympathetically. He grabs a cup and pours something into it from a pot. “This is the warmest place I could put you; I know it’s not very comfortable. How are you feeling?” He offers Alfred the cup of steaming something-or-other, which he takes and drinks halfway before considering that it might be boiling hot. It’s not, but it does burn a little bit. Oh well. He’s parched and he’s always been pretty strong with hot foods.

“Thanks to you, I’m doing better now.” Alfred says, sounding breathless but clear. He takes another long drink and looks back up at the cat still hovering over him. As he’d thought, it’s the friendly-looking cat who answered the door moments ago.

The cat smiles and refills Alfred’s cup. Alfred takes another sip of the hot, kinda tasteless liquid. 

Now that Alfred thinks about it, and considering the circumstances, their earlier exchange at the front door was probably more than moments ago. He recalls enough to know he’s lucky to have woken here on this lumpy pile of… earthy smelling something. Root vegetables?

“Um. Sorry for troubling you, dude.” Alfred says with genuine remorse and gratitude. He shifts gingerly. “I know I just barged in on you, here, and if I heard right, you kinda stuck your neck out for me? But I think you might have saved my life and I really appreciate that.”

The cat’s smile becomes a bit strained and worried and he silently puts the kettle back by the stove and fiddles with some pots. Alfred watches as he does this, holding the warm mug between his hands. The heat radiates into his fingers and palms and he feels a pleasant, tingly chill rush through him as his body reacts to the temperature difference. Mattie should be happy with the temperature change. Alfred’s always been more of a summer guy.  
  
“Feliciano,” the cat says finally, and it takes a moment for Alfred to wrangle his brain back into the moment. 

“Huh?”

“My name.” he explains. “May I ask yours?”

“Oh! Yeah, I’m Alfred,” he replies. Then he decides to ask, “Hey, I was wondering if you’ve seen my bro—”

Before he can finish, though, the crowd outside makes itself very conspicuous by falling entirely silent. Feliciano waves his hands wildly in Alfred’s direction in a way that seems to request silence. Alfred blinks and closes his mouth, twisting his ears toward the door so as to hear what all the fuss is about. A low, muffled voice comes through the closed door and Feliciano bursts back into action. He grabs the blanket that had been covering Alfred, drapes it back over, again, and appeals to Alfred with a frightened expression. 

“ _Please._ Whatever you do, do not move and do not make a sound!” Felicano whispers urgently before Alfred’s vision is covered again by the blanket. 

Well. Okay then! Quiet. Still. He will be a potato. 

Almost simultaneously, the door swings open. 

“—Lovi! Welcome back!” Feliciano’s voice rings a little too eagerly. “You’re home so late! Everyone was worri—“

“Feliciano, I’m not an idiot.” Comes the low voice, cutting through Feliciano’s greeting like a sharp knife through a um… a potato? Alfred winces again, trying to keep still.

“I _know_ there’s a tom here.” The voice continues. “I’ve been tracking his scent all over this gods forsaken forest, and I find what? His tracks lead _right. Fucking. HERE._ And you are _not_ going to tell me that you, and everyone else standing outside this door, don’t know about it.” Stomping footsteps take the low voice closer to where he’d heard Feli stop.

“Ehhh…” Alfred hears Feliciano’s nervous voice wavering and unable to retort. There’s a short pause and some shuffling sounds.

“You’re shitting me. That’s him, isn’t it.” The low voice breathes. Oh… Uh oh? Well, that didn’t take long. Oh, shit shit shit, footsteps! Coming closer! What now?? 

“Lovi _aspetta, non—_ ”

The blankets fly off of him and there’s nothing he can do but await a reaction. To his credit though, Alfred continues to do his best impression of a potato and stares blankly up at a very furious looking cat.

He looks uncannily similar to Feliciano; not identical like Alfred and Mattie are— his jaw is squarer, and his nose is kinda different; he’s probably a little older too— but they must be brothers at least.

‘Lovi’ looks at Alfred with an expression that threatens unspeakable violence before turning to Feliciano, probably to start yelling again. Weirdly though, he pauses, looks back at Alfred again, mouth still open, and just sort of stares at his face and down to his prone form for quick second. Alfred somehow resists the urge to smile nervously and wave. He remains a potato.

_“Per piacere_ Lovi, _ascoltami! Non sa de—”_

Alfred belatedly registers that Feliciano is speaking an unfamiliar language, and whatever he says, it causes 'Lovi’ to snap out of his momentary gazing. He turns a snarl back on Feliciano.

_“No excuses!”_ he shouts. “I spend _years_ keeping this place a secret. I shed my blood, sweat and tears every day for this place, and for what!? We have ONE RULE, Feli—”

“—But Lovino—”

“ _What?!_ What could have _possibly_ been worth it?!”

“H— he just… he showed up on the doorstep by himself, Lovi! Out of nowhere, I swear! And he was wet and freezing and I thought he was going to die out there, and then he—” Feliciano’s eyes tear up and his mouth wobbles pathetically.

“Oh, Yeah? So you decided that it’s worth the safety and the livelihood of every molly living here for—”

“—AAAhhhh Lovi!!—”

Feliciano wails loudly over the end of Lovino’s sentence and Alfred is briefly as startled and confused as Lovino looks.

“Lovino! _Stavo cercando di dirti che non sa delle micie! Era svenuto e quando si è svegliato non sapeva nulla!!”_ Feliciano rattles off to Lovino, who’s mouth drops open in shock, glancing briefly at Alfred with wide eyes. He recovers quickly, though, and argues back in the same language.

They go back and forth for a bit, so Alfred puts his brain to work with the context he has. Lovino definitely just said that there are mollies here. Objectively speaking, all Alfred knows about them is that they’re super rare because the Void causes them to get sick and die really easily. Not counting Mama, he’s never even met a molly before.

Judging by what Lovino’s been saying and the way Feliciano’s been acting, it stands to reason that Alfred has stumbled upon a secret hideout that protects mollies. Mollies who will be in danger for some reason if the secret gets out!

Something resonates in Alfred’s chest at the thought. This is actually really cool! Kinda like the stories he used to make up about the cats in the history books. Like the lost prince of Balia who he imagined would return one day to save the cats of his kingdom from tyranny! (Mattie had made fun of him and said it unrealistically glossed over a very complicated government structure, but it was one of Alfred’s favorites.) 

Uh. Anyway! Lovino and Feliciano are out here helping cats in need and now they think he’s jeopardizing their efforts. He needs to tell them that he can be trusted. _More_ than trusted!

“Hey? Hey, guys?! You said there are mollies here? And they’re in danger?” Alfred’s eyes are practically sparkling as he interrupts their argument, earnestly. “Don’t even sweat it! Your secret is _totally_ safe with me!”

The two of them stop arguing to stare at Alfred, then the tension seems to crack. Lovino slaps a hand over his face and even Feliciano groans a little, looking less than relieved. It’s not exactly the reaction Alfred was expecting.

_“Dobbiamo parlare.”_ Lovino says sternly, turning back to a grimacing Feliciano. _“Fuori._ **Ora.** ”

He then turns to the door. “Feliks!”

It opens immediately, as though the cat behind it had been waiting for their cue.

“No problem, boss.” A cat with chin length blond hair, tawny fur, and a bored expression steps inside and leans against the wall near the door frame, hand on hip. “And if it’s not a problem with you, or whatever? The mollies wanna patch him up.”

Hey now, that sounds nice!

Lovino raises an eyebrow at the newcomer and begins pushing Feliciano brusquely toward the door. Er… what now? What’s going on? Where are they going? Alfred tries to sit up, but he’s got such a cramp going, he can’t really budge. It seems like his ankle doesn’t want to take any weight right now, either.

“They can do whatever they want with him.” Lovino says, scowling as he passes Feliks. “And don’t call me boss.”

Without a single look back at Alfred, Lovino and Feliciano have gone. He’s a little let-down to be dismissed like this, but now he has another new cat to contend with. A cat who is staring him down with a neutral, appraising smile and those intensely bored, green eyes. It’s not quite like the familiar sizing up that enemies give him before a fight begins. Honestly, that would be comfortable in comparison. In fact, he’s beginning to realize that Feliks’ ‘bored expression’ is deceptively hard to read and rather unnerving. Worse than that, though, Alfred feels as if _he’s_ being read like a book.

Then, when the silence has stretched Alfred’s nerves to their breaking point, Feliks smirks, head tilting to the side. The tense moment is over. 

“Pff. Yeah, no, this one’s not gonna be a problem.” Feliks says toward the door, then addresses Alfred. “Like, welcome to the Sanctuary, I guess.”

★

  
In the next moments, Feliks manages to maneuver Alfred off of the lumpy pile and support him so that he can sort of shuffle-limp effectively enough. Meanwhile, the smell of whatever it is cooking in those pots hits him hard again; his stomach growls loudly while Feliks leads him past the stove. Feliks side-eyes him with a raised eyebrow. Alfred frowns, not sure if he’s being made fun of, but the thought leaves him the moment Feliks swings the door open. 

It’s not the first time Alfred has felt this cool, sharp sensation graze his neck, which is why he freezes as fast as he does. Usually, he’s in better condition and able to dodge out of the way; in his current condition, however, all he can do is lean perfectly still on Feliks’ shoulder, and stare down at a pair of flat ears. There’s a neat bow tied into the long, pale hair between these ears, which frames a sharp expression on his attacker’s pretty face. 

“Be thankful.” She says, shifting the blade in her grip delicately against his skin. “If you make even one wrong move while you are here, you will not live to regret it.” 

Though he’s uncomfortably unclear as to what this cat would consider a “wrong move,” he’s not about to argue or negotiate in this situation. He nods his head as best he can without cutting himself and she withdraws her blade reluctantly before turning away. Alfred watches her long, pale hair and elegant tail swish in agitation as she walks briskly ahead. 

“Yeesh. Was that really necessary?” He says under his breath, swaying slightly in relief. Feliks snickers.

“Natalya’s not the only one you’re gonna worry about.” Feliks says, smirking cryptically, and Alfred becomes keenly aware of the volume rising around him. A small crowd of cats closes in on the two of them as they enter what looks to be a hallway. Curious and suspicious faces watch him as they cross the floor, talking amongst themselves. He catches snippets here and there, though some of them are speaking in languages he doesn’t know.

“Oh, he’s very young—”

“That doesn’t mean—”

“—not at all what I expected.”

“What should we do if—”

“—just have to wait and see what—”

They’re all mollies, Alfred realizes. He had wondered what the difference would be like in person since books and fading memories can only convey so much. What he sees, hears and smells ranges widely but he’s able to build a rudimentary idea. What he gathers primarily is that most of them smell kind of different than he’s used to. 

Despite Feliks’ ominous warning, they’re able to traverse the crowd to reach the far wall unaccosted, though he can practically feel the sharp glares of some others who did not approach. Feliks helps Alfred through a door and into another room that’s even smaller than the first. Much as the other room and the hallway had been, this one is mostly constructed of wood. Alfred finds it a bit strange to be surrounded by so much processed timber and cat-made construction but it makes the room feel warmer than two-canes stone ever did and that’s a nice touch!

The molly who had seemed eager to relieve Alfred of his head only moments ago stands beside them just inside the doorway. Farther into the room, another molly-cat looks up from a small, bedside table and smiles warmly at Alfred. He notes that she has pale hair and long white fur that match Natalya’s, but the similarities between the two seem to end there. She pats the lone bed in the room, inviting Alfred to sit. Before they can move, however, Natalya puts a hand out across his chest to stop his and Feliks’ progress. 

“You will NOT do anything stupid.” She says with a her deepest glare yet boring into him. Alfred blinks at her a few times and Feliks snickers again. 

“Okay. But um, what do you mean by stupid?” he asks gravely. Mattie always tells him that he does a lot of stupid things, so it’s a legitimate cause for concern! “’Cause I’d really like to be clear about—”

_“Natasha!”_ The taller, short-haired molly exclaims with a soft but chastising tone. “We do not treat guests this way.” 

Reluctantly, Natalya pulls her hand away from Alfred and crosses her arms, huffing. Feliks laughs at her openly, which makes Alfred rather nervous.

“Welcome! Please call me Katya.” The new molly says, addressing Alfred. Her presence is as warm and soft as Natalya’s is cold and sharp. Alfred can feel himself relaxing already. “If it is okay that I examine? Please remove clothing from waist up and sit here.”

“Heck yes, please! Hi, I’m Alfred!” He says with a winning smile. It’s strange, though; it feels a bit shakier than usual. Leaving Feliks’s side, he limps closer to the bed, removing his vest and arm warmers along the way. He then sits gingerly on the bed. 

“Injuries?” Katya asks, leaning in close to examine his ears and neck. 

“Uh, something in my back hurts and I got a twisted ankle.” Alfred replies, dutifully, lifting his foot slightly to indicate that it’s his left.

It feels nice to sit. Even though Natalya has walked to the back wall and posted herself in his blind spot, his guard is beginning to fade. His body seems to have had enough excitement. Katya’s fingers graze over one of several superficial scratches on his arm while she checks his extremities, presumably for frostbite. He hadn’t gotten a good look until now, but he’s got some pretty ugly bruises popping up, too. “Huh. Guess I got banged up pretty good.” 

“You guess? You do not remember?” Katya asks, betraying a hint of concern. She lifts his face and looks into each of his eyes.

Oh, right. Something had happened to put him in this condition to begin with. 

“Uh. Let’s see.” Alfred murmurs distractedly, as Katya next touches around his head and neck lightly, searching for injuries. “We were traveling to Achena— my brother Mattie and me, that is— and we ran into trouble with some villagers...”

“You were injured while fighting?” Katya asks.

“Nah. There were too many and they were… Well, they were really—” Terrifying? Out of their minds with anger? About to murder and eat a their   
neighbor? The emotions of that night are a little too much for him to handle right now, much less articulate so he moves on. “…We ended up running from them, but then… Uh. I blacked out.” 

Alfred looks down, staring vaguely at a dark knot in the grain of the wooden floor beneath his feet. He remembers the fearful screams and the angry, deranged roar of the crowd that night. He can clearly see Mattie’s terrified face as Alfred tried to escape whatever creature had caught him before pitch blackness took him away. And then waking up from a truly horrible nightmare, lost and half frozen.

He doesn’t know how he got injured or how he got on the river bank… He doesn’t know where he is, he doesn’t know why he blacked out, and—

Alfred shudders and runs a shaking hand through his hair when an awful fact — one that had been itching in the back of his mind ever since he woke up— suddenly comes into sharp focus.

He has no idea where Mattie is or what condition he’s in… 

Alfred has never been without Mattie before. Even when they patrolled their territory separately he’d _always_ known where he could find him. And now, with the way they parted back in that village…

“Alfred? Tell me what is wrong.” says Katya firmly, with her fingers at the pulse point in his wrist.

“I uh… I don’t— Um…” He replies through labored breaths; his chest feels tight and he’s awfully light headed. “Mattie. I need to find my brother. He—”

The world tilts and, wow, there is definitely something wrong. Alfred closes his eyes against the spinning room and rubs his clenching chest. What is happening to him??

“Alfred, sit please.” Says Katya, and her voice is like a cool cup of water. “You are fine. Take deep breaths.” 

Alfred didn’t realize he’d stood up in the first place. 

He sits and spends the next several moments following Katya’s breathing instructions until he’s more or less back to normal. Katya fetches a cup from the bedside table and scoops up water from the barrel in the corner of the room. She hands it to him and he drinks gratefully. Feeling much calmer, he looks around the room in an effort to reorient himself. Natalya hasn’t moved from the position she’d taken behind him, and Feliks is still leaning against the wall next to the doorway. Both watching him.

“Better?” Katya asks with a small smile, placing two fingers at his wrist again and taking another look at his eyes. 

Alfred nods, sort of embarrassed and very confused. “What the heck was that?” 

For a split second Katya’s expression drops into something like pity but it quickly morphs into a wide, doting smile. 

“Do not worry, _koten’ka_. It is merely physiological response to high stress. It is not uncommon nor dangerous.” She says before resuming her examination; she taps out a staccato rhythm in various areas on either side of his chest with her fingers, listening to the noise intently.

“Oh. Weird.” Alfred says. Seems really worthless for an involuntary reaction. 

He turns stiffly to the side so that Katya can move on to inspect his back when he’s hit with an especially strong hunger pang. His thoughts return to the pots on the stove in the other room. 

Judging by the way Lovino had reacted, he can’t be sure that they’d share their food with him… Feliciano had broken an important rule just bringing him in. Thinking back on it, he must have been trying to prevent Alfred from discovering that there were mollies here. It would explain his behavior and it’s probably what he and Lovino were arguing about… What would have happened if Alfred had remained quiet? Hm… Nothing he can do about that now, though.

He really doesn’t like this feeling of being distrusted. The good news is, almost everyone here seems to be hedging their bets and waiting to see how he acts. Even Natalya! He can totally work with that! Lovino, though, doesn’t seem like he’s open to negotiating. Alfred bites his lip absently, remembering the anger he’d seen in Lovino earlier. He appears to call a lot of shots and he’s already rejected Alfred on mere principal.

When Katya moves on to his ankle, she delicately tests the give of his boot and waits for him to brace himself before pulling it off slowly. She pulls the other one off with slightly less care. 

“Alfred?” Katya prompts gently, interrupting the lingering silence and Alfred’s wandering thoughts as she prods and stretches his injured leg. “You know, this place is very important to us. We call it the Sanctuary because we are safe here; but only if our location is secret.”

Alfred scratches his neck. “Yeah, I kind of got that impression from the argument Feliciano and Lovino were having.” 

“I see!” Katya laughs fondly. “These brothers are like two drops of water, but they are so often at odds.”

He’d gotten that impression too. 

“I told ‘em that they can trust me to keep the secret safe, but I don’t think they believed me.” Alfred says, frowning. He hears a quiet scoff come from the back wall, but Katya responds before he can look around.

“I am glad to hear that you would keep this secret.” She says, pulling some bandages from a basket beside her. She breathes a small sigh. “Feli and Lovi are very cautious, Alfred. They have difficult job, especially Lovino. You see, Feliciano is not good at— ehm… keeping secrets.” Alfred hears Feliks laughing again for some reason. Katya tactfully ignores this and continues as she begins wrapping his ankle. “He usually stays inside to help with home chores. Lovino does most work outside Sanctuary: he will stand guard, make provisions trips to Achena, patrol this area and and he finds mollies who need help. A lot of responsibility falls on his shoulders so that we remain safe.”

Alfred’s eyes widen and his heart begins thumping again with the same kind of excitement he’d felt earlier upon understanding the basic operation of this place. Something deep within Alfred sparks to life as he imagines Lovino, sour face and all, performing all these tasks, determined to help. That anger starts to look more like passion and it is, frankly, inspiring. Of _course_ Lovino wouldn’t just trust him with such an important secret. Alfred has been shamefully myopic about all of this.

Alfred breathes a deep breath and looks plainly at Katya. “Hey, it’s cool if you can’t say, but like… what’s everyone here hiding from, anyway? I mean, if it were just the Void and the Sickness you’d all be in Achena, right? Since it’s supposed to be safest. I’m guessing this is some other problem.”

Katya looks up at him with a politely bewildered expression, and he can see that even Feliks raises an eyebrow. 

“Is he serious?” Comes Natalya’s irritated voice from the back wall. Alfred raises his own eyebrows, wondering again what was wrong with what he’d said.

“He's dead serious, Nat.” Feliks’s eyes roll exaggeratedly to the ceiling. “Oh, how _precious._ Like… what rock did you crawl out from under, kid?” 

This startles Alfred. “Uh. A pretty big one, I guess? How did you know we lived under a rock??” Gilbert had told them cats don’t live underground the way the twins did, and normally no one would think to look there. 

The room is silent, though, and instead of answering either of Alfred’s questions, Feliks says dramatically, “Oh my _gawds_ , I _can’t_ with this anymore. Are you done, Kat??” 

“Oh! Yes!” Katya says, standing with the basket of bandages in arm. She’d finished her work already and there’s now a comfortable pressure surrounding his bruised ankle. “Alfred. You are quite healthy! Your temperature is normal now, lungs are clear and injuries are only light sprains, little more than bruise. You will heal quickly with plenty of rest, water and food.”

Alfred’s ears twitch at a loud clunking noise close behind him. He turns to see that Natalya has refilled his cup and set it unceremoniously on the bedside table. He’d like to thank her but she’s still staring daggers at him again— it could be his imagination, but behind the daggers appears to be considerable exasperation. If he wasn’t so used to reading it on Mattie’s face he might have missed it. She then walks around the bed to link her arm in Katya’s and begins to lead her away, all without a word.

“Oh?! A-alright, then. Please rest now, Alfred. Dinner is ready soon, I think. It is nice meeting you!” Katya manages to say before Natalya drags her out of the room. Feliks follows, closing the door behind the three of them, leaving Alfred alone with his questions, and now several more. 

Katya did say that there’d be dinner though. That should tide him over for now.

★

Alfred hums vaguely as he licks the last bit of his arm that he can reach, and with that he’s finished his grooming routine. He’d done what he could with his tail, but his long fur is too tangled up to do anything about without his comb. His comb that is presumably still in his pack, which could be anywhere. 

Urgh, forget about the comb; his blackout has cost him so much more than that and created so many problems. At least he ended up at this ‘Sanctuary’ place. His welcome may be dubious at best, but if he had ended up anywhere else, he might not even be alive.

Alfred sighs and stands up carefully. He’d emptied his cup of water already so he slowly makes his way to the barrel in the back corner for a refill when— 

**_-SLAM-_ **

By the time Alfred looks up to see what had nearly broken the door down, a scowling blur of reddish brown hair and olive skin is already halfway across the room in his direction. Something about the intrusion doesn’t ping his instincts to dodge or counter, and so when Lovino grabs his arm roughly and slams his back into the nearest wall, Alfred merely lets it happen. His head knocks into the wall pretty hard and he hisses in pain as his injuries are aggravated. 

“—Ye _owch!”_ Ow ow ow ow! When his brain catches up to the situation he finds that Lovino has him pinned to the wall, blocking him in with the one hand still gripping his arm and the other planted on the wall beside his face. 

Alfred is surprised he hadn’t heard or sensed him outside the room. Surely his condition hadn’t dulled his senses that severely. No… earlier in the other room Lovino had been perfectly loud and stompy, so what’s up with this stealth mode all of a sudden? 

“You and I are gonna have a talk.” Lovino says through a visibly tense jaw. Actually, his face is so close that Alfred can see his pupils constricting into thin slits and his golden-green irises twitching and shifting minutely. Woah… Alfred swallows.

“O-okay??” Alfred rasps, his voice breaking. Not scared so much as he is astounded, Alfred recognizes that, despite this aggressive display, Lovino has very little offensive intent. However, his defensive aspect is so high, there’s hardly any loss in the intensity of his threat. This is possibly the reason he’d been taken off guard. Momentarily enraptured, Alfred finds himself wondering how Lovino fights and what kind of counter measures would be necessary against him.

“I want to make one thing _very clear._ ” Lovino says, his grip tightening on Alfred’s arm and interrupting Alfred’s train of thought. “You are only alive right now because the mollies here have deigned to let you stay and recover.”

Total agreement! Alfred nods emphatically. He’d just been thinking that himself. Lovino’s eyes only narrow suspiciously.

“If you intend to leave this place in one piece, I suggest you forget it even exists.” He continues. “If you even breathe _one word—”_

_“I wont!”_ Alfred interrupts Lovino. He wants to put Lovino’s worries to rest for good, and so he speaks earnestly and looks back into Lovino’s, now slightly startled face. …Oh. He may have shouted. He does that sometimes. “I wouldn’t! I know I’m a complete stranger, and all, but I owe my life to everyone here. I couldn’t betray that!”

Alfred’s tone brightens a little and he smiles, satisfied that he’d defended his honor. Now for the other reason. 

“Heck. Even if I didn’t owe my life, I wouldn’t tell anyone! I don’t know the full situation here or anything, but you said it earlier and Katya told me, too. Everyone’s safety relies on this place remaining secret, and that, y’know, you work really hard to keep it that way, right?”

Lovino’s grip on Alfred’s arm twitches slightly along with the scowl on his face. His face goes a little bit red.

“I mean, that’s so awesome!! There are some seriously badass cats here who trust you to help them. It’s like... You’re basically a hero.” Alfred finally looks away, a little embarrassed about his gushing, so he laughs to try and cover it up. “I think I’d really like to help cats, too! I’d offer to help you guys out right now if… if I didn’t need to find my bro.” 

He’s sobered up by the end of that last thought. Remembering that finding Mattie is currently his highest priority puts a damper on his mood. 

Lovino finally releases Alfred’s arm. Alfred looks back at Lovino only to find that he’s lowered his head and covered his face with that hand. Alfred relaxes a bit into the space that’s opened up and watches Lovino curiously. It’s hard to tell what kind of reaction this is. Shortly after, the fingers on the hand covering his face part to reveal another intense glare. One that first bores into the floor before slowly rising up Alfred’s half naked form to meet his eyes before darting away again. And he’s red again. Alfred cocks his head to the side, thoughtfully. Could it be this guy doesn’t take compliments well? 

“Fuckin’… dumb looking kid. You wouldn’t be of any use, anyway.” He says stiffly, taking a step back and setting his hands at his hips like he doesn’t know what else to do with them. “And don’t think you can buy my favor with that kind of shit flattery.” 

That’s… kinda rude. Alfred raises his eyebrows at Lovino’s profile, not knowing how to respond. On the other hand, Alfred’s been called worse by cats much closer to him, so it doesn’t sting all that bad. Besides, it wouldn’t take much to prove him wrong. Alfred’s quite confident in his patrolling and combat skills, for a start! Lovino, too, looks like he’s at a loss for words, so they stand there in awkward silence for some time.

“…Feliks told me about your situation.” Lovino says, gaze stubbornly directed at the floor, and it takes Alfred by surprise. “You said you’re looking for your brother, right?” 

Alfred nods, watching with wide eyes as Lovino sets his jaw and finally looks back up at him.

“Tell me what he looks like and where you were separated.” He demands evenly. 

Alfred’s tail rises with a bubble of hopeful excitement.

“We’re twins! Identical twins. His hair is a little longer and wavy and his eyes are a little more purple but otherwise we look almost exactly alike. His name is Matthew.” Alfred says quickly. “We got separated up in that, uh. The village set into the mountain side, you know? The one out west?”

Lovino squints at Alfred. “Karo? The hell were you doing out there?” 

Alfred shrugs. “Passing through?” 

“‘Passing through’?” Lovino repeats incredulously. “They’re fuckin’ _cannibals,_ dumbass, you don’t just _‘pass through’_ Karo.”

“Well, obviously things broke pretty bad… That’s where I blacked out.” Alfred says a little defensively, though he feels guilty remembering Mattie’s anxious protests to his plan. “Besides, all other travel routes from our home to Achena were cut off by the Void.

“Your home?? Where could you— No. You know what? Nevermind. I don’t want to know.” Lovino sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “If you started in Karo and ended up on the river bank near here, It’s possible that you fell in the river up there and were washed down here. Hell knows how you’d have survived that while unconscious, but if that’s all you have to go on…”

“Y-yeah…” Alfred replies. He’d thought the same thing and had the same doubts. “I was literally next to it when I blacked out. And I can’t think of any other scenarios that make better sense.”

Lovino gives him a deadpan glare for another silent moment before lifting his finger to point at Alfred.

“ _Do not_ get closer to the mollies than is absolutely necessary. And you’re leaving here the moment Katya clears your health. Got it?”

Alfred nods, chewing the inside of his cheek, feeling a confused emotion somewhere between hope and disappointment. 

“Good.” Lovino says and then makes his way out of the room, closing the door behind him. 

Alfred blows out a breath he’d been holding and looks down at the cup still clutched in his hand. As he finally refills and drinks a few times, he wonders about Lovino asking him about Mattie. He can only hope something good comes of it.

★

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know how it's going for you so far! Thanks for reading! ^^


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